The German splatter film sub-genre is one that is probably argued over most by horror fans. You either love them, or you hate them. Fans will say that they are some of the most insane, gory, and violent films ever made. Most critics will say that they are too silly, and the gore is so over the top that it makes the film look almost childish. I, however, am stuck somewhere in the middle.

Olaf Ittenbach is one of the most notorious German filmmakers. He made a name for himself in the late 80’s and early 90’s with hardcore gore fests like “Burning Moon” and “Black Past”. While he doesn’t really have any type of unique directorial style, he does do an amazing job at special effects. “Premutos” is one of his most sought after movies, and it has finally been brought to the U.S. courtesy of Shock-O-Rama Cinema.

The story is about “Premutos”, the first fallen angel (I always thought Lucifer was the first, but who’s really counting anyways?). He wants to rule Earth with the help of his son. Meanwhile, in present day Germany, a young man named Matthias is having flashbacks of himself during various time periods of the past. It is his father’s birthday, and he has just discovered a suitcase in their yard containing a strange book and some yellow potion. Later, Matthias becomes bed-ridden as a result of being hit in the balls during a soccer game. His father tries to cheer him up by showing him the book he found in the suitcase. Matthias fucks around with the book and the yellow potion, and discovers that he IS the son of “Premutos” (which explains all the flashbacks). Matthias transforms into a monster and all hell breaks loose as zombies begin to walk the earth.

As far as gore and effects go, “Premutos” is top notch. Ittenbach does extremely well with what is an obviously small budget. There are tons of exploding heads, intestines ripped out, and people cut in half with chainsaws (and if that weren‘t enough to make you sick, check out the sex scene with Matthias‘s very mannish looking sister, yikes!). When it comes to delivering the blood and guts, Ittenbach doesn’t screw around. However, don’t expect a non-stop barrage of blood like you would from something like Peter Jackson’s “Braindead”. For the first half of the movie, the death scenes are a little sparse, but near the end of the movie, you will be so overwhelmed with gore, that you’ll feel like taking a shower after you turn it off. There is even a body count listed at the end!

Most of the problems I found with this movie don’t necessarily have anything to do with the movie itself; they are more the fault of Shock-O-Rama. The English dub is simply atrocious. The voice actors sound like they are reading the script for the very first time. Granted, they probably aren’t getting paid very much, they still could have tried to put some level of emotion in their voices. Up until the point where Matthias actually transforms, the film is pretty much a snooze fest (except for a few cool death scenes that are peppered in), and the lame voice acting just makes it twice as bad. However, I can say that at least Shock-O-Rama tried. There are countless movies that are put out by companies a lot bigger than Shock-O-Rama that only provide subtitles and don’t bother to take the time to include an English track (yet the German audio of “Premutos” has no subtitles, go figure!).

All nit-picking aside, I found ”Premutos” to be an overall fun movie if you can get past the shitty audio. Does the movie seem almost childish and immature at times? Yes. Does the movie have gore just for the sake of gore? Yes. But who gives a shit? Movies like this are supposed to be fun. They aren’t supposed to make you think. They aren’t supposed to provide any kind of social commentary. They are just supposed to entertain you for a few hours, and in that respect, “Premutos” does its job.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:

- Uncut Fullscreen Version - English and Original German Audio Options - "Making of Premutos" Documentary - Shock-O-Rama Trailer Vault

“Inside Premutos” is a typical 50-minute, dubbed in English making-of feature that consists mainly of cast interviews. A lot of the gore effects shown looked a lot better in this documentary than they did in the actual movie! Once again, the English dubbing is terrible. This time around, about half of what everyone is saying isn’t even being translated. There are a lot of times where Ittenbach will be saying something for almost a minute straight, and there is absolutely no English dubbed over.

The trailers are all mainly for soft core porn movies. A lot of which are spoofs of major motion pictures, such as “Play-Mate of the Apes” and the lovely “TITanic 2000”.